Apple iPad: How to clear cache on an iPad

Did you know you can reclaim a lot of your iPad memory just by clearing the cache? Here’s how you do it for your own iPad.

Step 1: Delete the Safari cache on iPhone or iPad

We’re going to start by clearing out the cache in Safari. Note that this will log you out of any websites you’ve signed into. Follow these steps to clear out the Safari cache on your iPhone:

Open the Settings app, and scroll down to the fifth group of options (with Mail at the top). Tap Safari.

Scroll down again and tap ‘Clear History and Website Data’.

Tap ‘Clear History and Data’.

Step 2: Clean app data on iPhone or iPad

Data stored by other apps can be cleaned out using the Usage option in settings. Follow these steps:

Tap Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage.

In the top section (Storage), tap Manage Storage.

Select an app that’s taking up a lot of space.

Take a look at the entry for Documents & Data. If this is taking up more than 500MB, it’s worth deleting and reinstalling the app to clear the space.

Tap Delete App, then head to the App Store to re-download it. This will be a clean install without all the data and documents.

Step 3: Free up memory by restarting your iPhone or iPad

For the most part, iOS will manage your memory effectively without you having to do anything. But we do find that restarting an iPhone occasionally is a good way to clear the memory and ensure that important apps have enough to use.

Here’s how to restart your iPhone:

Hold down the Sleep/Wake button (on the top or at the top-right of the device) until “slide to power off” appears.

Swipe the power off slider.

Wait until the device has fully powered down, then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button to turn on the iPhone.

Doing this on a regular basis used to be vital on an iPhone, and it’s still useful on older models.